Limner v0.8.0: Vector tools that feel like Illustrator, and a sturdier Animation timeline

Limner v0.8.0: Vector tools that feel like Illustrator, and a sturdier Animation timeline

Vector mode has been rebuilt around Adobe Illustrator's muscle memory: the
modifier keys, the pen and selection behaviors, the full Pathfinder row, and
dozens of small interactions now work the way your hands expect. Animation mode
gets the frame operations beta testers asked for, an export that never freezes
the app, and full undo coverage for the timeline. Illustration mode is
unchanged, and your existing files open as they always have.

New

Vector mode

• Illustrator's modifier grammar, everywhere. Shift constrains shapes to
  squares, circles, and 45 degree lines while you drag; Alt draws from the
  center; Alt-dragging a selection makes a duplicate; arrow keys nudge objects
  or selected anchors 1 px (Shift for 10 px); Up and Down add or remove sides
  while dragging a polygon or star.
• A full-featured Pen. Click a segment to add an anchor, click an anchor to
  delete it (the path stays connected and keeps its shape), Alt-click to
  convert a point between corner and smooth, and click an open path's endpoint
  to pick it up and keep drawing. Selected paths show their anchors while the
  Pen is active.
• Direct Selection depth. Drag a curve segment to reshape it (straight
  edges slide rigidly, like Illustrator); rubber-band across paths to select
  individual anchor points; Alt-click walks the Group Selection ladder from an
  object up through its enclosing groups.
• The whole Pathfinder second row. Trim, Merge, and Crop join Unite, Minus
  Front, Minus Back, Intersect, Exclude, Divide, and Outline, on the
  Pathfinder options bar and panel.
• Transform like Illustrator. The selection box hugs the drawn shape and
  carries eight handles: corners scale both axes, edge midpoints scale one
  (Alt from the center, Shift uniform, Shift-snap rotation to 45 degrees).
  Flip H and Flip V buttons mirror the selection in place.
• Place shapes by numbers. Click any shape tool without dragging to type
  exact dimensions (length and angle for the Line), just like Illustrator.
• Illustrator shortcuts. Ctrl+J joins selected paths, Ctrl+8 makes a
  compound path and Ctrl+Alt+8 releases it, and the bracket keys resize the
  Vector Eraser band.
• Sharper cutting and drawing tools. The Knife now slices open lines and
  stroked paths, not just filled shapes; the Pencil closes into a filled shape
  when you finish near the start; the gradient annotator's endpoints are
  grabbable on canvas to re-aim an existing gradient; the object marquee
  selects everything it touches instead of only what it fully surrounds.

Animation mode

• Reorder frames by dragging a column in the timeline ruler.
• Copy and paste whole frames, across any distance in the timeline.
• Frame hotkeys. One Alt family drives the playhead frame: Alt+N new,
  Alt+D duplicate, Alt+L linked clone, Alt+C copy, Alt+V paste after,
  Alt+Delete delete. All rebindable in Keyboard Shortcuts.
• Find a stroke's layer. Ctrl+Alt+click any mark on the canvas to jump to
  the layer that owns it.
• Paste reference images. Ctrl+V drops a copied image straight onto the
  Reference board.

Improved

• Duplicating a frame copies every layer of that frame, not just the
  active one, so edits to the copy never bleed into the original.
• A new frame starts blank on every layer, ready to draw the next drawing.
• Animation export no longer freezes the app. GIF, MP4, and PNG sequence
  export render one frame per screen refresh and stream to the encoder in the
  background; you can keep working, and the export cancels cleanly if you
  switch documents.
• Undo covers the timeline. Frame add, duplicate, delete, reorder, retime,
  and paste are all single undo steps (Edit ▸ Undo), restoring the whole
  timeline exactly.
• Transparent areas read clearly. Empty canvas shows as a dark field by
  default, with a View ▸ Transparency checkerboard toggle; Animation mode
  always shows the checkerboard so onion skins stay readable.
• No console window. The app opens without the black terminal window that
  used to appear behind it.

Fixed

• Alt gestures in Vector mode (duplicate, draw-from-center, convert anchor)
  did nothing: the temporary color-picker latch was consuming them.
• Scaling or rotating a vector selection could leave a ghost of the old shape
  behind for a few frames.
• Rounding a live shape's corner ring now works on the first click and drag.
• Deleting an anchor no longer flattens the curve through the gap: the
  neighboring handles re-fit to keep the drawn shape.
• Undo, redo, and frame operations are safely ignored while an animation
  export is gathering frames, instead of corrupting the export.

Notes

• Everything above rode through the full test suite (500 tests) and an
  adversarial code review; the review's findings were fixed before release.
• File formats are unchanged: documents save and load exactly as in 0.7.9.